PARTY WITH PRIDE
For the first time in its celebrated ten-year history, the Marlborough Pride Street party has stretched its shapely legs into a two-day weekender, surely making it the biggest and best Pride after party in town. More than ten acts are already booked for Saturday 1st after the main parade at 5pm, and Sunday from noon sees another day of Pride Beside The Seaside-themed fun. And if it pees down with rain, the theatre has a handy stage indoors for the acts, which is handy. You’re advised to get a wristband at the venue before the event though – it sells out every year.
BEACH DOWN WARM UP
The Open House on Springfield Road is hosting a Beachdown Boutique on Saturday 15th, the official warm-up to the Beachdown Festival later this month. Local bands The Drookit Dogs, Passenger and Gentleman Starkey will be whetting appetites for the main event in the pub’s mahoosive back garden, which will also have a hog roast, a massage parlour and all-ages face painting. The Boogie Zoo DJs will then soundtrack your merry-making until late into the evening.
RAMP IT UP
It’s not often that we get to say this, but Danny Rampling is coming to town. Who’s he, you might ask, but you’ll only get away with that if you’re in year 6 or something. Danny Rampling pretty much invented acid house with his pioneering Shoom club nights. Now a scary twenty years later, he’s back to own the Ocean Rooms on Saturday 29th. Whether you’re a curious young shaver or a seasoned old raver, this is a night not to be missed.
GET ROUND THE SQUARE
It’s that time of year again, when we all say ‘Where the hell did the summer go?’ and ‘Oh, it’s ok. We can always go to the Brunswick Festival’. Over a pair of weekends in the Square, you get Rural Day on Sunday 16th, with the popular ‘Scruffs’ dog show, kids fun and conservation stuff, and the following weekend the festival proper; with the usual mix of music, dance, circus tomfoolery, theatre, good grub and of course a big beer tent. This is always a good, laid back event, so check it out.
BLUE IS THE COLOUR, ART IS DOWN THE CRANE
What with it supposedly being summer when the skies are blue rather than the usual grey, Crane Kalman on Kensington Gardens are hosting a photography exhibition themed around the colour for the whole of this month. Featuring work by Jeff Divine, Rob Carter and Morgan Silk, the collection is an examination of how the colour’s emotive qualities are expressed to provoke a sense of feeling and atmosphere. Obviously.
IT’S UP HIS SLEEVE!
Here’s something we don’t preview every month. The Hope is the place to see close-up magic this month, with a new show from Smoke And Mirrors on Wednesday 19th. Dan Edwards, Leon Simmonds and Simon Ambrose (plus other special guest magicians) will be delivering a bewildering array of both close-up magic at your tables and a stage show for the main event,
TIN DRUM BANGS TOO LOUD
In what looks suspiciously like a thinly veiled advertisement for the hilarity of their comedy nights, news reaches us of a fracas involving the Tin Drum. Local residents were left fuming when the mirth caused by the comedy performers caused deafening laughter, which carried through the open windows and into their reluctant lugholes. Obviously the graveness of this aural burglary necessitated council involvement, and complaints were made. No one would have known about it of course, if the good people at the Tin Drum hadn’t told us. But we’re not going to fall for this obvious attempt at publicity. Oh.
GO METAL
Saturday 15th is the day all local metallers have circled on their Slipknot calendars, for this day brings them their most favourite thing in an all-day capacity. The Lectern on Lewes Road is the setting for The Summer Metal Fest All-Dayer, Brighton Metal Scene’s inaugural event, to promote their metal community website. The bill features Heart Of A Coward, Wreck Of A Minotaur, Mask Of Judas and Circle Of Rage, as well as other bands without ‘of’ in their names; Safety In Hiding, Citadel and Here There Be Monsters. We’re all devil horn hands already.
MISS PICs
This month the Impure Art gallery on Ship Street Gardens is hosting an exhibition from Brighton artist Miss Aniela called Neurotica – a mix of the erotic and neurotic, perhaps unsurprisingly. There’s something about this place we really like – not just that there’s usually some T&A on show under the guise of art, but they have a genuinely creative wavelength in their curation that’s right up our alley. This new collection of self portraits focuses on the use of lighting in depicting the female form and it looks really good.
WALKING FOR COINS
The good people at the Martlet’s Hospice need your money, three million quid of it to be exact. It costs them over £4 million a year to help terminally ill people live with some dignity, and the government only gives them a quarter of it, preferring to spunk billions on bank bonuses. So man up for the Noon Walk, a men-only 13-mile sponsored walk on October 4th. Register at themartlets.org.uk and make a difference to someone’s life while they’ve still got some going on. You’ll feel good.
NICK COQUET
